West Africa lacks capacity for economic growth—Emefiele

The Governor of Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Godwin Emefiele, on Monday said that the countries in the West African region are still pressured by capacity deficits that has retarded their economic growth.

Emefiele, represented by Sarah Alade, Deputy Governor, Economic Policy at the 20th anniversary of the West African Institute for Financial and Economic Management (WAIFEM) in Lagos said the region still lack capacity despite the several efforts to achieve sustainable development.

“Those deficits continue to inhibit efforts in implementing their developmental strategies and policies and in achieving their desires development outcomes.”

According to him, weak capacity in its various dimensions has continued to be the problem of the continent, urging the member countries to continue to support the objectives of WAIFEM established for the purpose of capacity building.

He stressed the the need to ensure that WAIFEM becomes the training and capacity building institution of ECOWAS.

“We need to fast track it to avail the entire ECOWAS countries opportunity to benefit from WAIFEM’s capacity building programmes.”

Also, Executive Governor of the Central Bank of Liberia and Chairman, Board of Governors of WAIFEM, Milton Alvin, said WAIFEM had recorded success story in its efforts to access the best human resources across the region.

Alvin added that WAIFEM as an institute had over the years engaged cost effectiveness in operations. He stressed that WAIFEM had always used partnership and networking to increase the efficiency and effectiveness of member countries.

The chairman said the institute also allowed the member countries to adopt best practices at minimal cost and engage them in capacity building to foster technology transfer.